Guidance

International recruitment regional fund for the adult social care sector 2025 to 2026: guidance for regional partnerships

Updated 10 April 2025

Applies to England

Introduction

This government is committed to improving the way international recruitment works in adult social care, ensuring individuals work for legitimate providers and tackling the exploitation of workers. We have seen unacceptable increases in unethical practices and exploitation in the adult social care sector. That is why we are making up to £12.5 million available in 2025 to 2026 for the international recruitment regional fund, to support migrant care workers impacted by sponsor non-compliance or unethical practice and respond to poor employment practices.

This government is working to ensure that those who seek to abuse the immigration system face strong consequences and those impacted by unethical recruitment practices can access the support they need to find alternative, ethical, sponsored employment.

Over the 2024 to 2025 financial year, 15 regional and sub-regional partnerships across England have established the infrastructure and processes to support migrant care workers into new, ethical employment with new sponsors. This includes ‘single point of contact’ mailboxes in 15 regions covering the whole of England, for migrant care workers to contact for help in facilitating job introductions with adult social care providers and for pastoral support. They have also served to raise awareness among providers of the pool of workers impacted by non-compliant sponsors who are available to support their workforce.

In 2025 to 2026, regional partnerships will be expected to go further and ensure workers impacted by non-compliant sponsors or unethical practice can access the support they need to find new, ethical, sponsored employment as quickly as possible. We also want to ensure that regional partnerships support the work of UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) and other relevant enforcement bodies by sharing insights regarding unethical practices they are made aware of.

Aims

Tackling unethical international recruitment employment practices in the adult social care sector is a priority for this government. The funding over the 2025 to 2026 financial year will focus on supporting workers impacted by non-compliant sponsors or unethical practices to find new, ethical, sponsored employment, helping the adult social care sector to benefit from workers already in the UK. The fund will also support wider work to prevent and respond to exploitative employment issues affecting migrant care workers. The main aims of the fund are for regional partnerships to:

• support those impacted by non-compliant sponsors or unethical practice into new ethical, sponsored employment in the adult social care sector
• engage with adult social care providers to encourage recruitment of migrant care workers impacted by non-compliant sponsors
• support work to prevent and respond to exploitative employment issues

We want investment in the regional fund to:

• significantly increase the number of migrant care workers impacted by non-compliant sponsors or unethical practice accessing support and finding new, ethical, sponsored employment
• substantially increase the number of providers engaging with regional partnerships and raise awareness of the pool of migrant care workers available to support the adult social care workforce
• improve intelligence-sharing regarding international recruitment activity across the regional partnerships to inform and support UKVI and other relevant enforcement bodies to clamp down on unscrupulous providers
• strengthen evidence of what works for ensuring ethical recruitment and retention of international workers to inform ongoing and future practice and policy
• support our wider objective to ensure sufficient workforce capacity in the adult social care sector

Implementation

To achieve the aims of the fund, the conditions for partnerships accessing the grant are as follows.

Regional partnership infrastructure

Partnerships should:

• identify a lead local authority to receive the grant on behalf of the partnership, as we are using a section 31 mechanism to pay the grant
• consist of local authorities and care alliances or other groups of local providers
• cover a region or a sub-region and make sure that services offered through the partnership are available to adult social care providers and migrant care workers within that area
• ensure that relevant stakeholders, such as migrant care workers and providers, are engaged in decisions regarding support services to be funded, to ensure the grant meets the funding objectives and to ensure value for money

Policy and legal context

Partnerships should ensure that:

• any recruitment activity supported by the partnership adheres to the international recruitment code of practice
• they comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015 - under section 52 of the act, local authorities have a statutory duty to notify the Home Office when they come across potential victims of modern slavery
• any job introduction activity complies with the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the associated Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. An exemption applies for local authorities under section 13(7) of the Employment Agencies Act 1973
• they comply with the Subsidy Control Act 2022
• relevant data sharing agreements are in place to facilitate job introductions, including across regions

Monitoring and evaluation

Partnerships should:

• have clear data collection and monitoring processes in place to report to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) against the aims of the fund. This will include, although is not restricted to, monthly data on metrics such as the number of people securing new sponsorship and making successful visa applications; the number of people contacting mailboxes for support; and the number of providers engaging with regional partnerships. This will also include quarterly reporting on project spend against the aims of the fund. DHSC will set out further detail regarding reporting requirements in the memorandums of understanding (MOUs), which will be issued directly to regional partnerships
• monitor the impact of the interventions and provide information to DHSC to help evaluate the impact of the fund. The grant funding can be used in part to support local monitoring and evaluation
• collect and monitor data for their area around sponsor licence suspensions and revocations, and disseminate information to local authorities affected to ensure they are able to manage the impacts on workforce capacity and service users in a timely manner

Service provision

Examples of how the funding can be used to meet the grant objectives are set out below.

To support migrant care workers impacted by non-compliant sponsors into new, ethical, sponsored employment, partnerships could:

• continue to provide a single point of contact mailbox for migrant care workers, responding promptly to all queries
• provide a person-centred employment support service and facilitate job introductions with employers. This could be provided, for example, through local authority case workers, a recruitment agency or third sector organisations. Services could include support with CV writing and interview skills
• maintain a register of ethical providers in the area to facilitate job introductions. This should not be limited to those with certificates of sponsorship or those that have previously used international recruitment
• develop effective processes to work in partnership across regions and with the devolved nations to support those willing to relocate to access vacancies in other areas
• disseminate information and guidance or signpost to relevant organisations, as appropriate, for migrant care workers to understand their employment rights and how to report unethical recruitment practices. Partnerships must not provide immigration advice. Individuals should be signposted to relevant organisations as appropriate
• deliver communications to promote the support for migrant care workers available via the regional partnerships, and put in place local strategies to increase the number of people contacting mailboxes for support
• provide or signpost to pastoral support, as appropriate, to ensure migrant care workers have the support they need to continue working in the adult social care sector

Partnerships should consider how to spread good practice regarding supporting migrant care workers into new sponsored employment and engage with other regional and sub-regional partners on their learning, as well as develop new innovative solutions.

To engage with adult social care providers to encourage recruitment of migrant care workers impacted by non-compliant sponsors, partnerships could:

• deliver communications and put in place other strategies to raise awareness among adult social care providers of the migrant care workers available to support their workforce - this could include hosting events and webinars
• undertake relevant checks to help ensure that the new providers that migrant care workers impacted by non-compliant sponsors or unethical recruitment practices are placed with are ethical employers
• work with providers to evidence that they have attempted to recruit from the pool of workers impacted by revocations before recruiting new workers from overseas as per the changes to the Skilled Worker immigration rules that came into effect on 9 April 2025

To support work to prevent and respond to exploitative employment issues, partnerships could:

• disseminate information, advice and guidance to providers on ethical recruitment practices
• support processes that enable UKVI to more rigorously assess the validity of Certificate of Sponsorship applications in the sector
• share insights regarding unethical recruitment practices with relevant enforcement agencies

Funding process

DHSC intends to distribute the grant through a lead local authority that will act on behalf of all the local authorities in the partnership and in collaboration with local care alliances, local providers or other groupings of local providers. However, the responsibility for delivery of the interventions lies collectively with the relevant parties that make up the partnership. The regional partnership will work collaboratively to develop a delivery plan which sets out how the partnership will deliver the aims of the fund.

There will be no competition between partnerships for funds. For the 2025 to 2026 fund, funding will be made available to local authority areas using a 75:25 weighted approach. This means that 75% of funding for each region will be based on the sum of care home beds and domiciliary care users within local authority areas and 25% will be based on revocation levels per region from 2024 to 2025. This is to ensure that funding is allocated according to local need.

The funding will be paid in quarterly instalments. Final funding amounts will be determined quarterly, based on level of need and to ensure maximum value for money. Indicative dates and amounts are set out below in annex A.

Annex A: 2025 to 2026 indicative allocations

Region	Totals 2025 to 2026	Quarter 1	Quarter 2	Quarter 3	Quarter 4
North East	£836,022	£209,005	£209,005	£209,005	£209,005
Yorkshire and The Humber	£1,203,081	£300,770	£300,770	£300,770	£300,770
East Midlands	£1,157,230	£289,308	£289,308	£289,308	£289,308
West Midlands	£1,408,095	£352,024	£352,024	£352,024	£352,024
East of England	£1,511,117	£377,779	£377,779	£377,779	£377,779
South East	£1,817,227	£454,307	£454,307	£454,307	£454,307
South West	£1,139,897	£284,974	£284,974	£284,974	£284,974
Cheshire and Mersey	£512,986	£128,246	£128,246	£128,246	£128,246
Greater Manchester	£548,961	£137,240	£137,240	£137,240	£137,240
Lancashire with Westmorland and Furness	£417,811	£104,453	£104,453	£104,453	£104,453
London, North East	£487,392	£121,848	£121,848	£121,848	£121,848
London, North Central	£329,606	£82,402	£82,402	£82,402	£82,402
London, South East	£373,977	£93,494	£93,494	£93,494	£93,494
London, North West	£389,500	£97,375	£97,375	£97,375	£97,375
London, South West	£367,098	£91,775	£91,775	£91,775	£91,775

Please note, as these figures are rounded to the nearest pound, the total figures might not exactly add up.